The Secret

I am out of touch with the world of Oprah and most of TV in general, but when something is big enough to make it to the show, it eventually gets to me. The Secret is one of those things. As a skeptic and someone who’s been bamboozled by the kind of wishful thinking presented by the books, I feel like it is my duty to have a field day with the idea.

I am not really offended by positive thinking. If you want to think your way though life, be my guest, but when someone claims that the magnetic field around your body has the power to alter the structure of the universe by altering it’s vibrations, well, lets just say that I am forced to smile and shake my head–unless I’m reading an issue of Dr. Strange.

What frightens me is that people look at this stuff as if though it was scientific. It is not. It has nothing to do with science or with the way in which the universe works. However, I think that the philosophical implications of this kind of garbage are even worse.

According to this book, human mystery is caused by negativity. People who suffer do so because they do not have the appropriate psychic tools to think their way out of poverty. Forget about having been born in a third world country ravaged by war! You just need to think good thoughts, and everything will be fine. Thus, people who suffer really need no humanitarian aid, but a book.

There is one thing that humans can never satisfy, and that is their own desires. There is no such thing as satisfying your ego. You’ll always want more. This world is plagued by people wanting more, and we are using it up. Happiness does not lay in visualizing yourself in to “harmony with your desires.” I actually believe that that way sadness lays, because human wants are bottomless. Not bad, just bottomless. If you love books, you’ll never have enough of them. You do not have enough time to read all you want to, but so what? You just do your best. You could try to vibrate in harmony with the universe to “create” more reading time, or you could learn to read faster.

This video is a great example of logic going wrong in the face of a bad claim.

Plus this guy makes truly beautiful stuff. I’d pay for it, but not because he visualized me, but because he put a video of something that interest me online. He took action. “The Secret” has nothing to do with his success. His talent did it. Give yourself some credit man! Market your stuff. We geeks love castles. I have never visualized my way to the top of my half.com account, but I know that I sell more books when I offer lower prices than my competitors.

One of the most fantastic developments in cognitive science is behavioral cognitive therapy. This is a way of thinking about the world which help us to deal with our stress and anxiety effectively without having to resort to wishful thinking. Some people claim that even visualization helps, but not in the way this ludicrous book claims it does. Your thoughts do not vibrate with the universe. This is not a “quantum physics” thing. Just because quantum physics are weird, it doesn’t mean that there is supernatural magic in them.

Why does every New Ager make bogus claims about quantum physics anyway?

There are enough positive results associated with positive thinking to confuse people. The brain is a complex feedback mechanism that regulates our moods based on the information we add to it. Given enough motivation, our levels of “happy brain drugs” go up and we feel like we are vibrating with the universe. If you’ve ever had an amazing dream, then you know what I am talking about. You wake up feeling great and in love with the Universe, just to realize that you really don’t own every comic book ever published. Some times, you wake up to realize that your wife isn’t cheating on you with Derek Kirk Kim, and you breathe a sigh of relief (don’t get any ideas, Mr. Same Difference, just because you write her favorite comic, it doesn’t mean that she loves you, you do rock though). In any case, in both instances something that your mind concocted made you feel something that wasn’t there. The mood may affect the way you go though your day, but it has nothing to do with the conditions of the day itself. It is good to be positive if you had a good dream, but don’t expect that it has anything to do with the astral plane.

There is a very insidious outcome from this kind of wishful thinking. Having been involved in the New Age (no longer), I’ve seen people fall in to deep depressions when they fail to manifest “their reality.” I’ve seen “teachers” claim that people with problems should be visualizing something better for themselves. The feedback mechanism in the brain feels worse whenever it doesn’t get what it thought it was going to get. Even worse, this kind of thinking is the same that took place during the plague years in Europe. People really believed that God was mad at them, and instead of looking for a solution to their problems, they hid in churches and talked to the air. We are doing the same, but this time we have no excuse. We have the tools to understand the Universe and to find solutions to our problems. Having the right mental attitude is only the first step to deal with the world. The rest has to do with understanding it. With seeing the way things really are. We are not getting any closer to doing that by reading cleverly marketed fantasy books.

Check out this article in Skeptic Magazine. They’re more technical than me. Oh, and while you are at it, check skepticality out. Great podcast!